NO. LIVERMORE — At the Sep. 17 North Livermore Baptist Church service, the congregation was welcomed by Pastor Bonnie Higgins to begin the service at 9:30 a.m. The Invocation/Lord’s Prayer were recited. The hymns that were sung were “All the Way My Savior Leads Me”, “Day by Day” and “Until Then”. The service ended with “Go Now in Peace”. Linda Lyman is the organist and Janet Diaz is the pianist each week. Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.
The sermon, titled “Trouble, We All Have Trouble” the scripture from John 16:33. Pastor Bonnie began by saying she has heard over and over the question, “If God is so loving, why is there so much pain and suffering in this world? Why does God allow it?”
We need to remember that this world was not created with evil in it. God created a perfect world for us to live in. We know from Adam and Eve that sin entered into this world when they chose to disobey God. It is not God that is responsible for sin in this world, it is us, mankind that is responsible by the choice that was made with Adam and Eve.
Many times, people have asked, “if God knew sin was coming, why give us free will?” God didn’t want us to be puppets and follow Him because we had too, God wanted us to follow Him because we wanted to. That is why He gave us free choice.
We look around this world and we see earthquakes, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, sickness, deadly diseases, broken relationships within families, etc. There are so many things that causes us to wonder, why God are you doing this to us? We know that Satan will do everything in his power to have God’s children take their eyes off Jesus and when we do, trouble will come.
In John 16:33, Jesus tells us that “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” These words should be comforting to us as a Christian because knowing that all that Jesus said and done for us. The Apostle Paul knew that this world would be hard for Christians, even saying that Jesus’ followers would be persecuted in this world. Jesus brings us a promise that he will give us peace, hope and comfort in all our troubles.
Two things for sure, living in this world, you can count on trouble in your life and that you can have courage in Jesus’ victory on the cross and resurrection. We need to also remember that Jesus has overcome the world and one day will be back for His Church to live with Him eternally.
Because of the death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection, Jesus has overcome Satan, overcame the sin in this world, and overcame death for each of us if we only accept His free gift of salvation. Salvation is only given through Jesus Christ.
So, why does God allow trouble among us? God does it so we can rely on Him. God will always be right there with us during every phase of our troubles. As we go through our troubles, we will see the hands of God who got us through and God will get the glory. Jesus has felt our pain and is there to help and love us through it.
Announcements listed in the bulletin are that the congregation will be collecting peanut butter for the Food Pantry in the month of September. Bible Study on Tuesday at 1 p.m.
For information, check out our website at northlivermorebaptistchurch.org. You can email the church at nlbcmaine@gmail.com. Pastor Bonnie’s office hours are Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon.
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